|
The
way the real world works, part 1
by marriah,
13th July 2001.
My journey has led me to seek solutions for the world's
problems. One problem is the lack of shared
knowledge.
|
Ever since the age of
about 5 I have based most of my life on the acquisition of
knowledge. What is knowledge? To me, it is the ability to change
yourself and your environment for the better. You can measure what
you know, or the quality of your knowledge, by how easily and how
much you change yourself and your environment at will. I have always
implicitly accepted Francis Bacon’s idea that knowledge is power,
without having read his essays.
Knowledge is application.
Thus, if knowledge can’t be applied, it really isn’t knowledge.
Since it isn’t knowledge, there isn’t any reason to think about it
or care about it.
I grew up seeing people who didn’t have
book learning living pretty happy lives because they understood
their environments and other people, and how they personally fit
into their environments. My father, who only graduated from high
school before spending 20 years in the Air Force, is one such
example. He just goes with the flow, and if there is a problem he
takes care of it based on his accumulated knowledge and experience.
Otherwise, he simply works and has fun, at peace with himself, his
surroundings, and everyone he meets. Imagine Bobby McFerrin in
"Don’t Worry, Be Happy." That’s my father.
I also saw people
with book learning stressing out constantly because of friction with
other people and the inability to shape their environments as they
pleased. After talking with them, I gathered that for all the
knowledge they supposedly had, they didn’t really understand
themselves, the environments they were in, or how people interacted
with their environments. They spent so much time thinking about the
knowledge they had that they didn’t actually apply it very well. My
mother and stepmother are examples. They have accumulated lots of
knowledge over their lives, each has a Master’s Degree, and my
mother recommends a book for all possible problems. Want to solve
something? Go to the library or the book store. My stepmother uses
her knowledge to show her mastery of a subject and win and argument.
Yet, my mother flits from one book to another, always striving to
know more yet never actually implementing what she knows, and my
stepmother is always struggling with her work and her family.
Looking at these examples, representative of trends, I knew
that I wanted to be like my father, yet have the knowledge of my
mother and stepmother. As I examined their lives, their childhoods
and their adult activities, I concluded that the most important
things in life weren’t acquiring money and possessions, or having
lots of knowledge, but using what possessions and knowledge you had
to make you happy. What is happiness? From growing up in a family of
8, with lots of brothers and sisters, I determined that happiness is
the ability to relate well to those ate home and at work so that you
can pursue personal goals, either because there is no friction to
distract you, or because you have help from friends and family in
your personal endeavor. The personal endeavor is what matters most,
and everything else is just an engine for it.
After
examining my father, I concluded that he had personal endeavors, but
that he was always distracted from them, so that the only time he
was truly peaceful and happy was when he we pursuing his hobbies. In
contrast, I noticed that my mother and stepmother almost never
really pursued their hobbies because they were struggling so much
with their distractions. So, my interest in acquiring practical
knowledge grew out of my desire to be able to pay full attention to
my passions, without distractions and with lots of apprentices
helping me along the way.
To sum, knowledge is not mere book
learning or useful instructions, but a tool that one has constant
access to that, and properly implemented, allows one to enjoy life
as much as possible. Looking from my parents to the children I knew,
I concluded that the period known as childhood was apparently
blissful (but only at certain times) because all the kids had lots
of time to pursue their passions without distractions, and even with
help from others.
So, knowledge has always constituted an
understanding, either acquired or innate, about how to be happy, and
the ability to actually achieve that condition. In most circles,
what I am talking about would be called religion, with knowledge
constituting God. In other circles it might be called spirituality,
and in still others it would be called wisdom. In my academic
circles, it’s called truth.
Yet, even though my
understanding about the nature and purpose of knowledge is so
simple, everywhere else it seems to be much more complicated. For
example, in religious circles, knowledge is separate from wisdom,
which can only be provided by God. Knowledge is limited, wisdom is
infinite. In spiritual circles, knowledge is called experience, and
must be accumulated through life. It comes from the heart, not the
mind, and can’t really be shared amongst people. It’s a personal
acquisition. In Academic circles, knowledge is merely information,
with truth being an insight into a fixed principle concerning that
information. Truth allows you to know, and to apply. Thus, must of
academics is concerned either with transmitting pure information, or
with the nature of knowledge itself.
Accordingly, in
religious circles knowledge is very limited to certain people and
books. In spiritual circles, knowledge isn't limited per se, but you
can’t take any short cuts. You can only acquire it through very hard
work. In academic circles, knowledge is very specific, and it must
meet rigid standards to be accepted as knowledge.
Thus, in
religious circles knowledge may be practical, but very difficult to
access; so difficult in fact that you may not be able to get it when
you need it, rendering it totally ineffective, and thus not really
knowledge. In scientific circles, religious knowledge becomes belief
because it is almost never around when you need it – it always
concerns the future, deriving the present from the future – and
hence requires a leap of faith to acquire it. In spiritual circles,
knowledge is very specific, useful for one person only, and has no
universal qualities. This tends to make it very impractical, because
unless you live a completely isolated existence, it is impossible to
implement it since you have to synchronize with other people.
Accordingly, spiritual knowledge is often possessed only by loners
and social outcasts. Otherwise, it really isn’t knowledge. In
academic circles, knowledge is filled with so much doubt, unless it
meets the rigorous standards, that by the time you have the ability
to use it, the window of opportunity for using it has already past.
Thus, as Hegel said, the Owl of Minerva flies at dusk: knowledge
only comes after something has happened, making it totally useless
and thus not knowledge.
In order to acquire knowledge, I
understood that I had to either have a storage bank of information
with me so that I could use it whenever I needed it, or I had to be
around people who were knowledgeable so that I could acquire it from
them when necessary. That’s a crucial point. Knowledge must be
shared in order to be implemented. Otherwise, it isn’t knowledge. It
can come from a book, or from your own thoughts, or from a
conversation. But you must be able to use it when you need it, not
before or after.
So, from the age of 8, I set about placing
myself in environments where I always had immediate access to
knowledge: libraries, classrooms, and television sets. Granted,
television wasn’t always trustworthy for providing knowledge. But it
always provided the opportunity to sort through and contemplate
knowledge, examining it for future use.
When I wasn’t around
a library, classroom, or television, my next priority was to have a
book to read, or to be with a knowledgeable friend. Having the book
with me was easy. Having the knowledgeable friend was much more
difficult.
I noticed that having knowledgeable friends was
difficult because there were so few in my environment. Living in a
poor neighborhood didn’t provide the best resources for sharing
knowledge. So I committed myself to getting into environments that
had an abundance of knowledgeable people. I saw myself on an
upwardly mobile social track so that by the end of my journey, I
would be constantly mentally linked with people who possessed lots
of knowledge in different areas so that we could easily share it.
|
| Member Ratings |
| Member |
Date |
Overall |
Agree? |
Writing? |
Enjoyment? |
| marriah |
13 Jul
2001 |
Contribution edited.
Around 0% of the body was changed. |
| marriah |
13 Jul
2001 |
Contribution edited.
Around 0% of the body was changed. |
| tomsdattarmolly |
13 Jul
2001 |
Absolutely
sensational |
n/a |
Don't touch
it! |
Standing
Ovation |
| ...............
;0) |
| s-hollar |
14 Jul
2001 |
Absolutely
sensational |
Neutral |
Don't touch
it! |
Standing
Ovation | |
| knowledge
is not mere book learning or useful instructions, but a tool
that one has constant access to that, allows one to enjoy
life | |
|
